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This study has previously reported (Oettle H., et al. JAMA 2007) that the use of post-operative gemcitabine in patients with pancreatic cancer significantly delays the development of recurrent disease after complete resection and is generally well tolerated. This presentation is an update of their previously published results.

The findings from this study suggest that gemcitabine is safe and effective in the postoperative setting, and its use should be considered. It is important to keep in mind that the patient population enrolled in this study was a highly selected one, in that the postoperative CA 19-9 levels had to be less than 2.5 times the upper limit of normal. This is a requirement that might rule out many postoperative pancreatic cancer patients.

The optimal postoperative management regimen continues to be studied by several groups. The use of combined regimens and whether or not to include radiation therapy are among the treatments being studied. Hopefully these studies will help determine the optimal regimen for postoperative use.

Nov 12, 2010 - Cetuximab in combination with gemcitabine and oxaliplatin shows promise as a first-line palliative care treatment for biliary tract cancers and appears to increase the chance for potentially curative secondary resection, according to the results of a prospective, phase II trial published online Nov. 10 in The Lancet Oncology.